I didn’t grow up with Harry Potter. Though the movies came out during my early to mid-childhood and were the cultural conversation of our time, (the whole “witchcraft scare,” my, how the political worm has turned), I didn’t actually watch them until I was probably eighteen or older. And I didn’t like them much, if I’m honest. I didn’t think much of the three leads, and starting with The Prisoner of Azkaban, each successive film became more and more of a jumbled, disjointed, confusing mess that felt more like a telegraph-style summary of material it was barely able to scratch the surface of.
Honestly, I had no idea what was going on. Suddenly the rat was a guy, Snape was a Death Eater, something about Voldemort’s father? David Tennant did something. Suddenly Lupin was back and married to that random chick with the hair? Ron had a random other brother, and the French girl was back. Further, the cinematography got darker and darker, and by the last film, I could literally not see what was happening on the screen
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After I read the books, I actually liked the movies even less, knowing now the full extent of what was cut from them, the rich character development and backstories, and the colorful world-building. I also hated what they did with Ron’s character, reducing him to little more than a buffoonish comic-relief sidekick. Sirius Black, Dumbledore, Voldemort all the great side-characters were reduced to cardboard cutouts. And whole vastly important plot elements were cut to snippets.
So, it goes without saying that the series format was always a better format for the stories and probably should have been the chosen medium to begin with.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Official Teaser | HBO Max
I’ll just come out and say that the kids do appear more promising than the original trio. But we’ll see. After all kids aren’t really acting at that age, and (putting aside the ethical question of taking a child’s entire childhood from them) we’ll see how they hold up. And while there has been some…controversy, let’s say, over Hermione’s casting, honestly, I don’t find it all that miffing. It can’t possibly get worse than the insufferable Emma Watson, who was just as grating as a nine-year-old as she is today.
The trailer hints at its expanded in-story-verse, with the first words we hear being a diatribe from Petunia Dursley, viciously informing our new Harry that “there is nothing special about you,” indicative of her lifelong jealousy and bitterness at her gifted witch sister. It’s a nice touch and promises far more fleshing out of side characters that could barely be hinted at in the films.
But there is simply no denying that the films have permanently defined the look and feel of the Wizarding World. Ask anyone what they imagine when they think of Hogwarts, 9-and-three quarters of them will be thinking of this
Diagon Alley, the Burrow, the Ministry of Magic – there’s no magic in returning to some new version of these places that were already captured to perfection the first time. I mean they exist in real life, at Universal, thousands if not millions of people have been there. There is no recapturing it.
And apart from the three leads, some of the casting in the films was dead-on brilliant. Some of it left something to be desired, (Gary Oldman was not a good choice for Sirius Black, neither Dumbledore really cut it, and I for one, was never a fan of Ralph Fiennes’ Voldemort) but I can’t imagine recasting Hagrid, Moody or Umbridge.
The creature design as well, was one thing the films did get absolutely correct. I mean, how exactly can you “put a new spin” on this?
You can’t, not if you want to portray it faithfully to the book. You can only take the same design, tweak it a bit, and make sure those tweaks are as obvious as possible, so the audience will be sure to get it through their heads that this is your “own take.” I mean, look at Hagrid here:
And that about sums up the main problem with this show: It can only try to lure people in with the promise of more but not new, and it’s in the undesirable position of straining every scene to make it as different from the previous iteration as possible.
And boy, are they straining.
When will they ever learn? Pretty much everything that can be said about the uselessness, narcissism, and inherent racism of race-swapping iconic characters has been said. About how it’s going to put an uncomfortable racial spin on every element of the story, that alters every relationship dynamic between this character and the others.
It’s a shame to see J.K. Rowling participate in this kind of pandering, especially for the sake of someone who’s simultaneously taking a paycheck from her while trying desperately to signal to his ultra-compassionate liberal comrades that despite his treachery in associating with her oppressor-ass, he’s still one of them. Well, I got news for you Paapa, (and John Lithgow might want to take notes): It won’t work. And herein may very well lie the seeds of this shows eventual destruction, and perhaps not in the way people think. Because when the you-know-what hits the fan I don’t know how well either of these guys (and who knows how many other cast and crew members) will be able to cope with the mean tweets.
Well, I don’t know. It might work out, but it does seem oddly self-destructive. On Rowling’s part on HBO’s part. Should you watch the show? I suppose it depends on who you want to say “screw you” to more: the race hustlers or the gender loons. But I for one cannot for the life of me figure out why studios keep making decisions like this knowing what it’s going to cost them. Or why a show that has the potential to do so much right, would choose to announce so early and so loudly everything they plan on doing wrong.
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